if I want to print a file with PARAM=DATA=ANSI I get "Required devicecontrol module LPS$INITPSDEVICE not found"Question: what must be in this file for the newest/greatest/best... hpprinter?How can I find out which older hp printer (DCPS supported) has a similarinit file?

BTW VMS is 7.1-2 due to application

thanks

nst

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Post by nstif I want to print a file with PARAM=DATA=ANSI I get "Required devicecontrol module LPS$INITPSDEVICE not found"Question: what must be in this file for the newest/greatest/best... hp printer?How can I find out which older hp printer (DCPS supported) has asimilar init file?

HP has a gazillion similarly-named printers, and many of those withmultiple variations within the series.

HP LaserJet Enterprise 500 color Printer does support Postscriptemulation. That might work as an "unsupported" printer with DCPS(DECprint Supervisor), and there are various discussions of that in thecomp.os.vms newsgroup archives available via Google Groups. Somesearch akin to the following will find previous discussions, and you'llend up experimenting to see what might or might not work with thisparticular printer — or any other printer with Postscript or Postscriptemulation support.

HP LaserJet Pro M501 series does not support Postscript or Postscriptemulation. DCPS will not work with this printer. Any Postscript orPostscript emulation printing associated with this printer requireshost-based software on Microsoft Windows or some other platformsupported by HP for this printer. OpenVMS doesn't provide host-basedPostscript or Postscript emulation. Which means converting thePostscript input file to something else, or passing the Postscript to aWindows system that can print it, or using a different printer. Forlocal direct access — non-Postscript access — to this printer, accessis via a "normal" printer port; LPR/LPR or telnet or the raw portfavored by HP printers. Unfortunately, I can't tell from the M501specs whether lpr/lpd (TCP 512) or telnet (TCP 23) are even supported,nor whether this printer uses the TCP 9100 raw port. (I do suspectthis printer does use at least the raw port favored by HP.) A portscan of the printer address for open port — if this is the M501n orM501dn model — will indicate which ports are open and available. Iftelnet and/or lpr/lpd printing is supported, then print queues forthose are configured through the TCP/IP Services package and itsprinting capabilities and related documentation, and not via the DCPSgiblets. But again, no Postscript from OpenVMS here, except via anLPR/LPD queue via Windows or some other system that does have thenecessary conversion.

If you just want to send "plain text" files and not Postscriptdocuments, then use TCP/IP Services and its printing capabilities andnot DCPS and configure either the lpr/lpd or telnet path into theprinter — which of those two paths gets chosen often depends on whichone happens to work for a particular printer. (DCPS is the path forprinting Postscript from OpenVMS. The TCP/IP Services printing pathscan be used for printing "plain text" documents.)

There may well be some other "501" variations among the LaserJetprinters, I didn't dig around on the HP web site in any depth.

A wonderful reminder, this. Printers, printing, print (and batchqueues) are a whole 'nother area of not-very-pretty on OpenVMS,unfortunately.

It's all cobbled together across ~forty years, and with littleintegration with OpenVMS, any of the add-on products (DCPS, VSI IP orTCP/IP Services) or otherwise, nor with (for instance) the networkidentities broadcast by most printers (mDNS or otherwise) or LDAP-basedconfiguration information, nor for the mixed and varied use ofconfiguration files and logical names and queue settings among thevarious cogs. Yeah, any particular SMB or enterprise might not usesome or any of those features, but it's still handy to have a pictureof what's available locally as that's often what folks are looking toconnect with and print to. IPP support, etc. For what it does, allthe pieces and parts can and do work. Yes, it's documented, thoughthe doc is scattered all over various manuals, depending on whichspecific type of printing is being configured.

Job control and process management and the class scheduler all needsome work, too, but that's a rather larger topic and a larger effort.

If the target printer is not listed, they have the following statement:"The PrintKit software has been designed to be adaptable to new printermodels, and to allow flexibility in choice of configuration. Validationof the software is an ongoing process. If your intended configuration isnot listed, please let us know - we may well have a solution."

Post by Scott DorseyWhat would be really nice, although admittedly not an easy task, would beif standard .ppd files could be used by DCPS for printer definitions.

Yes sir, it would, even though the PPD file does not supply all theinformation DCPS needs. We had a plan in 1999 to make DCPS data-drivenso that printer information would live in separate files and not behardcoded in the application. Alas, we never had the time to do it.

Paul

P.S. And Rob Brooks is thrilled to know that the mighty InfoServerMonitor was written in his beloved BASIC.

Both of these printers have backend drivers as part of ghostscript, so thatghostscript can be used to convert postscript files to their raster formats.Since ghostscript can be used as a filter in a print symbiont, I see no reasonwhy you couldn't use either one of these printers for graphics on a VMS system.Certainly either one would be much easier to use than an LCG01.--scott

But.. But... That would require using Open Source Software. Wecertainly couldn't allow that......